Google+ Badge

Friday, January 30, 2015

Such a fantastic journey this has been. This was such a great way to spend time together and I loved when my husband was able to be there too! Not only did Carter learn so very much, I did too. I quickly realized in order for this challenge to work, we would need to toddler-tailor the crafts for my little guy. I didn't realize that I would really enjoy that part as well.

Carter's first Art class was when he was around 9 months old. I just thought it would be fun and it was! I didn't think too much about it after that. Until....

I was not always crafty. (Before becoming a Mom, I worked 40 hours a week at a financial institution.)One cold December day, 2013....as my very active almost two year old at the time, was struggling with having to be inside much of the time. I set up an obstacle course made from wipe containers, diaper boxes, toys, etc....in our living room-this is where it all began and I never looked back.

Thank you all so much for following our journey. I will continue to blog about any craft adventures we continue to have!

To celebrate, I decorated Carter's kitchen chair with streamers and we set out some of the crafts from the challenge. What an amazing 5 months it has been. The most amazing thing from this was to see Carter learn and strengthen many different skills, including fine motor skills. He started to take pride in his work and took time when drawing a picture. His imagination only increased and he shared his ideas! I will write more in a final post, for now onto the LAST craft...

Carter was quick to take all of the buttons out of the tin. He really loves the button tin; he calls them "bunts." Love it. I had a pre-patterned spiral with dots on cardstock to use for one of the cards. Carter picked out the buttons to add to the dots and I used the hot glue gun to attach them.

For the second card, Carter drew his own design onto a piece of purple folder paper. He picked out the buttons to place on his picture and again I glued them on. He added foam stickers to the card as well. We made an ice cream cone, a sheep, monster etc. from the stickers and buttons.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

It is kind of hard to believe we only have one craft left to complete after this one. Wow.

So here it goes....Carter searched through the button tin for black, white and brown buttons. I didn't realize how low my pipe cleaner supply was! I need to stock up. We chose to use the blue pipe cleaner for the snowman.

I twisted the pipe cleaner in the middle to create a loop and two equal sides. Carter helped string the buttons on, slipping one end into each hole or if the button had 4 holes- we used 2 diagonal ones. Once all of the buttons were on, we bent the pipe cleaner to keep them in place.

The next one we made was supposed to be a dog- a Dauchound. We were going to give this to a friend, for her birthday present.....however it turned out looking like an anteater, ha! We added pipe cleaner legs and ears by bending the pipe cleaners in half, placed them between buttons and twisted in place.

Carter thinks they are the greatest toys! He even named the anteater, "Ice Cream"! Love it. This is definitely one of my favorite projects.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Another baking craft....I knew Carter would be ecstatic to see me bring out the mixing bowl and measuring cups!

First step was to make a basic sugar cookie dough. Carter helped add and mix all of the ingredients together. He even got to use the hand mixer! He thinks that is pretty fun. Once the dough had been made, I scooped it into a plastic Ziploc bag and let it chill in the refrigerator for three hours. Which was perfect, because we had some shopping to do.

After lunch, I placed parchment paper on the table and set our baking sheets on the ends, to hold the paper in place. I also placed parchment paper onto the baking sheets. I set a bag of flour on the table and Carter started to grab handfuls of flour. Messy fun!

Carter helped roll out the dough. I tried to trace around his hand with a wooden skewer. This proved to be more difficult than I had thought. So we tried a different method. Instead, Carter placed his hand firmly into the dough to leave an imprint for me to cut around. This was much easier than trying to trace around a squirmy toddler's hand!

We decided to cut out a few different shapes using a variety of cookie cutters. We were ready to place the cookies in the oven. Once cooled down, we decorated with icing and sprinkles.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

After a fun play date, we came back to the house ready for some lunch and our next project.

I had a ton of bobby pins left over from a past project that we could use for this craft. I brought out the scraps of felt and we decided to make leaves. Carter practiced his scissor skills...seems like he may be left-handed.

We rummaged through my "random" item craft container looking to see if we had bells to use. We did, however we found a cute plastic flower instead to go with the felt leaves. Carter decided we needed to use one of his plastic spiders for our second pin. I love his ideas.

The spider needed a web! So I cut a little piece of white felt out for the web to be placed on. Carter squeezed tacky glue onto the felt and pressed a piece of black elastic string into the glue. He started "spinning" the web, with a little help.

I used the hot glue gun to glue all of our items onto the pins as well as adding extra glue to the web to hold it in place better. We were ready to make the cards to attach the pins to.

Carter picked out the card stock to use. For the spider pin card, he only wanted to add one orange circle on a piece of black card stock. He is starting to have very strong opinions in regards to his art! For the flower pin card, we decorated it with stickers and a stamp.

Monday, January 26, 2015

So....#5...of course we put our own spin on this lovely idea. I didn't have a handkerchief or even a piece of non-patterned material. Apparently, I like patterns. So we decided to use a pretty plain green pillowcase. I didn't have any fabric crayons-didn't even know that was a thing. I searched for an alternative via the Internet...hoping to find an idea that involved supplies I already had. Luckily, I found a super fun alternative to using fabric crayons.

Sandpaper printing! We were venturing out to visit the Grandparents today anyhow and they have a supply of sandpaper. After a trip to the park and playing trains, we were off to start our project.

We had fine sandpaper to work with and there were holes bordering it, therefore Carter had a smaller space to draw his picture. I had to teach him to press down on the crayon, so there was enough wax to work with. The color was also more vibrant; he thought that was neat. I asked Carter to tell me about his picture....he explained to me that it was a sun and a star. I think it turned out gorgeous!

I did the ironing part. I placed a piece of cardboard in the shirt so it didn't bleed through to the other side. Iron was set to cotton, parchment paper placed over the back of the sandpaper, sandpaper art pressed against the fabric. It took around 45 seconds for the image to transfer over. By golly it did and was a clear transfer! Super awesome! I placed a paper towel over the picture on the pillowcase and ironed it again to remove excess wax. To set the color dry for 20 min and launder alone for the first time.

Carter picked out white yarn to wrap around the folded pillowcase and I tied a gift tag to it. A great heartfelt gift.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Super excited to do this activity! I may not enjoy cooking, however I do like to bake every now and again.

We decided to make not just fudge....we made fudgy brownies! I liked this recipe because it did not have a stove involved.This way Carter could help,completely. Plus we know Daddy's favorite dessert is brownies, and that's who we are making them for.

Carter helped pour all the ingredients into a big bowl and mixed it all together. Carter really likes kitchen activities. He scooped the batter into a baking dish and we were set to slide it into the oven. I made chocolate icing to go with it.

Once baked, we let it cool down. Carter was very excited to use the Dino cookie cutters. He covered the dino's in icing and decided sprinkles were also needed....of course!

Just as we were adding the sprinkles, my husband walked through the door and saw our surprise for him!

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Adorable mini-size presents! We had the perfect people in mind to give this to as a, "Thank-you" gift.

We used a small cardboard jewelry box in place of the matchbox. I dragged out the infamous, ever expanding baggie of paper scraps for Carter to search through. I poured craft glue in a cup and gave him a paintbrush to apply it. He picked various stickers and pieces of paper, gravitating towards the Christmas theme.

We chose a pink slip of paper to write our thank-you note on. Carter decorated the note with more pictures, stickers and his very own drawings! I added a thank you message using marker.

We placed a grasshopper trinket as well as our note into the box. Carter will be delivering this present very soon!

About Me

I am a stay at home Mom and professional volunteer;) I have the privilege of spending my days with my toddler, Carter. He is a very busy little guy. We love to spend our days on adventures and crafting. I was not much of a crafty person before becoming a Mom. As soon as I learned about the world of kid crafts & sensory activities, and Carter and I were able to experience it; there was no turning back;) I love, love, love crafting with my little guy as the process is just as important, if not more so than the end result.